Your days are spent in a mix of deep thinking, solving hard problems that challenge you intellectually but are still fun and novel, and collaborating with other deep thinkers. It’s software, so you know there will be some yak shaving, but you get to do some of the most interesting work, and you have a lot of power to choose what you work on. You love writing code, fixing code, making code go faster, and making computers do new things, and you get to spend most of your time doing that.
Because of your seniority, the managers ask you for your advice on how to approach development before it begins, so you know everything that’s going on but you don’t really need to deal with the details of the people building it. You’re invited to just the right set of meetings where the important decisions are made, but not so many as to disrupt your flow. The more junior developers look up to you and hang on your every word, taking your feedback but not imposing too much on your deep thinking time.
Your upward trajectory is never slowed, and there are always new big problems that you can solve to show off your value to the organization. You work hard, but are rarely called upon to stay late or work weekends, because as we all know it is impossible to do quality, thoughtful work for too many hours a week. When you do work late, it is because you are just so caught up in the flow that you can’t wait to finish the feature at hand or fix the bug you just found.
You get to write books, give talks, and create open source work — and with some luck and persistence, you earn a bit of industry-wide fame. No one cares that you’re a bit awkward or shy or expects you to evolve your communication style much, because what you say is so important. Everyone in your organization knows who you are, understands how valuable your work is, and is deferential to your opinions.
In short, you have the perfect balance of engaging work, fame, and accumulated expertise that makes you invaluable and respected, highly paid, and influential.